Using Neuroscience for Diversity & Inclusion in Organizations

Importance of Diversity in Employee Engagement

Organizations that are committed to diversity, and ensuring their people feel included, have an 80% increase in performance and are six times more likely to be innovative and agile, three times more likely to be high performing, and twice as likely to exceed financial targets (Deloitte).[1]

So, what is the mindset of an organization that embraces Diversity & Inclusion (D&I)? How do its people think, act, and feel? And what drives them to think, act, and feel this way?

An Organization’s Mindset Matters

Organizational mindset, as it relates to D&I, refers to the accumulation of deeply held beliefs, values, and attitudes within an organization. This mindset governs the choices and behaviors of people within the organization and the resulting experience and organizational ‘vibe,’ or culture.

While policies and procedures are important in outlining a framework for D&I, if these are not aligned with the mindset of the staff, a culture is created where employees are making certain choices and acting in certain ways because they believe they ‘have to’ rather than because they ‘want to,’ thus directly impacting the effectiveness of any D&I efforts.

Benefits of D&I and Gender Equality

Only 56% of organizations are reported to have a D&I policy, and only two-thirds even measure its performance. This means there is a long way to go in realizing the potential benefits of a truly diverse and inclusive culture.1

Gender equality alone is reported to have the potential to unlock $10.8B per annum just in Australia, let alone the worldwide economic benefit.

Neuroscience as a Tool for Awareness

The latest neuroscience research helps us to understand that many people are not even aware that they have a mindset that limits them from being able to fully embrace D&I. This is because 95% of the time they are acting on autopilot, completely unaware of the beliefs and filters programmed into the grey matter of their brain over the course of a lifetime.

However, exciting new research in neuroscience has demonstrated that we are capable of change. We can literally rewire our brains and swap old, outdated limiting beliefs for new, empowering ones, clearing dusty filters and broadening our lens of reality.

Benefits of Diversity

What could you believe about the benefits of diversity in relation to business strategy, risk management, healthy debates, and outcomes? What benefit could there be to a workforce that feels included and aligned with the company’s vision? And what do you need to unlock in yourself to make this possible?

So how can organizations embrace the latest in neuroscience to create a culture aligned with its vision for D&I? How can we help build knowledge, create awareness, and facilitate personal change for the emergence of a culture that embraces and thrives on these differences?

NeuroChangeSolutions: Transforming Organizations from the Inside Out

At NeuroChangeSolutions, we believe in transforming organizational cultures from the inside out. While leaders of an organization need a clear and well-communicated vision when it comes to Diversity & Inclusion, individuals within the organization need to become aware of where they sit both personally and as part of team in relation to that vision.

The way to discover this is to identify where their thoughts, actions, and feelings are limiting them in being able to fully embrace aligning with the organization’s vision.

Based on the work of researcher, lecturer, and best-selling author, Dr. Joe Dispenza, our program, Change Your Mind…Create New Results, is based on the latest neuroscience methodologies and gives individual employees, teams, and organizations the knowledge, models, and tools to create empowering and lasting change.

Holly is a speaker, coach, mindfulness ‘guru’ and, more recently, a Certified NeuroChangeSolutions Consultant. Prior to establishing her own practice in 2014, Holly worked with KPMG Financial Services for 15 years and was renowned for her ability to lead high-performing teams. She resides in Sydney, Australia.